A Tale of Two Gamers, Pokemon Red/Blue Challenge Day 3

Nat: Day 3

Waking up back in Kanto I still find myself in Mount Moon. What at first was a place of wonderment and opportunity for new Pokemon quickly deteriorates into fighting off waves and waves of Zubats!

To teach them a lesson, I decided to use my own freshly captured Zubat.

It’s a simple plan, it makes the wild Zubats think twice about attacking one of their own, while at the same time I kill any emotion my new team member had left, making it into the ultimate killing machine for the final battle against team Gaz.

It seems like the Zubats learn their lesson, but the thinning hordes of flappy critters are soon replaced by rocks with arms. It’s Geodude. Fortunately, it seems in Kanto that the process of erosion takes meer seconds; I’m able to one shot every Geodude with Wartortle’s ‘Water Gun’ attack.

After battling through the cave and picking up the Helix fossil (no idea what it’s for, but with so many people trying to stop me having it, there was no way I wasn’t taking it), I find myself with a nearly dead Pokemon at 3 HP and a somewhat sociopathic Zubat.

Nat meets himself in Poké form

I head to the nearest Pokemon centre in Cerulean City, picking up weapon of destruction for my team along the way. Welcome, Kakuna.

Healing up and deciding on where to go next, I end up making my way to the next gym. This gym is owned by Misty (where have I heard that name before?) and is home to water type Pokemon. I’m feeling confident.

Blasting my way through all of Misty’s henchmen, I confront the gym master. I need to get this battle over quickly so I can get on my way. Rumours are surfacing in the office that Gaz may be doing better than he is letting on.

It’s a hard fought battle, Zubat went down early in the fight after trying to bite a starfish but Wartortle pulled it back to two-against-one in my favour. A sneak attack by Misty smashed Wartortle into unconsciousness! Not to worry, I still have one Pokemon left at full health, I have this in the bag. Go Kakuna!

Look at those murder eyes, this is obviously a beast of destruction

It’s at this point I found out that Kakuna only has one move, ‘harden’… Why the hell does it have scythes for arms then???

Gaz: Day 3

Rumours of Nat’s adventures in Pokémon Red are starting to spread throughout the office. He’s doing well, very well. At the rate we’re both going, this is going to be an absolute massacre. Nat and his 6 finely tuned Pokémon vs me, and my level 8 Bulbasaur.

I was getting desperate, and desperate times called for desperate measures. After contemplating numerous ways of outright breaking the rules, I finally stumbled on a solution that allowed me to keep my morals intact.

I drafted in my son, an avid gamer and expert of all things Poké. The plan? Grind out a few zones and maybe nail a few gyms. Even though I wasn’t technically breaking the rules – I hadn’t played for more than 30 minutes, and I hadn’t thrown a single Pokéball, let alone 5 – I had a slight pang of guilt and forfeited my third days play, whilst my son hit Kanto in search of exotic Pokémon to bolster our efforts.

Progress was good, and we finished the day with a handful of Pokémon, 2 gym badges, a ticket on the luxury liner – the S.S Anne – and an evolved Ivysaur. Perhaps we still have a chance after all…

[Editor’s note – We couldn’t decide if this deserved punishing or not, as technically it was in the rules. Leave a comment below if you think it does and you can think of a suitable punishment.]